ICT news

• Microsoft Integrates a Free Version of Its 'Copilot' Coding AI Into GitHub, VS Code

  21-12-2024 18:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch:Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft's popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting free access...There are some limitations to the free version, which is geared toward oc
  
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• Sam Bankman-Fried Requests New Trial in FTX Crypto Fraud Case

  15-02-2026 22:35 via yro.slashdot.org
  While serving his 25-year prison sentence, "convicted former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday requested a new federal trial," reports Courthouse News, "based on what he says is newly discovered evidence concerning his company's solvency and its ability to repay all FTX customers for what prosecutors portrayed as the looting of $8 billion of his customers' money..."Bankman-Fried says evidence disclosed since his trial disproves prosecutors' case about Bankman-Fried's hedge fund r
  
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• 'Babylon 5' Episodes Start Appearing (Free) on YouTube

  15-02-2026 20:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Cord Cutters News reports:
  In a move that has delighted fans of classic science fiction, Warner Bros. Discovery has begun uploading full episodes of the iconic series Babylon 5 to YouTube, providing free access to the show just as it departs from the ad-supported streaming platform Tubi... Viewers noticed notifications on Tubi indicating that all five seasons would no longer be available after February 10, 2026, effectively removing one of the most accessible free streaming options for the space
  
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• DNA Mutations Discovered In the Children of Chernobyl Workers

  15-02-2026 19:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Researchers performed genome sequencing scans on 130 people whose fathers were Chernobyl cleanup workers. Comparing the scans to control groups, they found evidence for the first time for "a transgenerational effect" from the father's prolonged exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation.
  ScienceAlert reports:Rather than picking out new DNA mutations in the next generation, they looked for what are known as clustered de novo mutations (cDNMs): two or more mutations in close proximity, found in the c
  
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• Oldest Active Linux Distro Slackware Finally Releases Version 15.0

  15-02-2026 18:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  Created in 1993, Slackware is considered the oldest Linux distro that's still actively maintained. And more than three decades later... there's a new release! (And there's also a Slackware Live Edition that can run from a DVD or USB stick...)
  .
  Slackware's latest version was released way back in 2016, notes the blog It's FOSS:
  The major highlight of Slackware 15 is the addition of the latest Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS. This is a big jump from Linux Kernel 5.10 LTS that we noticed in the beta release.
  
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• Fake Job Recruiters Hid Malware In Developer Coding Challenges

  15-02-2026 17:34 via it.slashdot.org
  "A new variation of the fake recruiter campaign from North Korean threat actors is targeting JavaScript and Python developers with cryptocurrency-related tasks," reports the Register.
  Researchers at software supply-chain security company ReversingLabs say that the threat actor creates fake companies in the blockchain and crypto-trading sectors and publishes job offerings on various platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit. Developers applying for the job are required to show their skills b
  
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• Analysis of JWST Data Finds - Old Galaxies in a Young Universe?

  15-02-2026 16:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Two astrophysicists at Spain's Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias analyzed data from the James Webb Space Telescope — the most powerful telescope available — on 31 galaxies with an average redshift of 7.3 (when the universe was 700 million years old, according to the standard model). "We found that they are on average ~600 million years old old, according to the comparison with theoretical models based on previous knowledge of nearby galaxies..."
  "If this result is correct,
  
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• Vim 9.2 Released

  15-02-2026 13:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  "More than two years after the last major 9.1 release, the Vim project has announced Vim 9.2," reports the blog Linuxiac:A big part of this update focuses on improving Vim9 Script as Vim 9.2 adds support for enums, generic functions, and tuple types.
  On top of that, you can now use built-in functions as methods, and class handling includes features like protected constructors with _new(). The :defcompile command has also been improved to fully compile methods, which boosts performance and consis
  
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• Apple Patches Decade-Old IOS Zero-Day, Possibly Exploited By Commercial Spyware

  15-02-2026 09:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  This week Apple patched iOS and macOS against what it called "an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals."
  Security Week reports that the bugs "could be exploited for information exposure, denial-of-service (DoS), arbitrary file write, privilege escalation, network traffic interception, sandbox escape, and code execution."
  Tracked as CVE-2026-20700, the zero-day flaw is described as a memory corruption issue that could be exploited for arbitrary code execution... The
  
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• Additional Benefits For Brain, Heart, and Lungs Found for Drugs Like Viagra and Cialis

  15-02-2026 05:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "Research published in the World Journal of Men's Health found evidence that drugs such as Viagra and Cialis may also help with heart disease, stroke risk and diabetes," reports the Telegraph, "as well as enlarged prostate and urinary problems."
  Researchers found evidence that the same mechanism may benefit other organs, including the heart, brain, lungs and urinary system. The paper reviewed a wide range of published studies [and] identified links between PDE5 inhibitor use and improvements in
  
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• Your Friends Could Be Sharing Your Phone Number with ChatGPT

  15-02-2026 03:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  "ChatGPT is getting more social," reports PC Magazine, "with a new feature that allows you to sync your contacts to see if any of your friends are using the chatbot or any other OpenAI product..."
  It's "completely optional," [OpenAI] says. However, even if you don't opt in, anyone with your number who syncs their contacts are giving OpenAI your digits. "OpenAI may process your phone number if someone you know has your phone number saved in their device's address book and chooses to upload their
  
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• Small Crowd Pays to Watch a Boxing Match Between 80-Pound Chinese Robots

  15-02-2026 00:52 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Recently a small crowd paid to watch robots boxing, reports Rest of World. (Almost 3,000 people have now watched the match's 83-minute webcast.)
  The match was organized by Rek, a San Francisco-based company, and drew hundreds of spectators who had paid about $60-$80 for a ticket to watch modified G1 robots go at each other. Made by Unitree, the dominant Chinese robot maker, they weighed in at around 80 pounds and stood 4.5 feet tall, with human-like hands and dozens of joint motors for flexibili
  
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• US Government Will Stop Pollution-Reduction Credits for Cars With 'Start-Stop' Systems

  14-02-2026 23:52 via tech.slashdot.org
  Starting in 2009, the U.S. government have given car manufacturers towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions if they included "start-stop" systems in cars with internal combustion engines. (These systems automatically shut off idling engines to reduce pollution and fuel consumption.)But this week the new head of America's Environmental Protection Agency eliminated the credits, reports Car and Driver:
  [America's] Environmental Protection Agency previously supported the system's effectiveness, not
  
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• Dates with AI Companions Plagued by Lag, Miscommunications - and General Creepiness

  14-02-2026 22:52 via slashdot.org
  To celebrate Valentine's Day, EVA AI created a temporary "pop-up" restaurant at a wine bar in Manhattan's "Hell's Kitchen" district where patrons can date AI personas.
  The Verge notes that looking around the restaurant, "Of the 30-some-odd people in attendance, only two or three are organic users. The rest are EVA AI reps, influencers, and reporters hoping to make some capital-C Content..."But their reporter actually tried a date with "John Yoon", an AI companion pretending to be a psychology pr
  
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• Social Networks Agree to Be Rated On Their Teen Safety Efforts

  14-02-2026 21:52 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta, TikTok, Snap and other social neteworks agreed this week to be rated on their teen safety efforts, reports the Los Angeles Times, "amid rising concern about whether the world's largest social media platforms are doing enough to protect the mental health of young people."The Mental Health Coalition, a collective of organizations focused on destigmatizing mental health issues, said Tuesday that it is launching standards and a new rating system for online platforms. For the Safe Online Standa
  
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• ByteDance's Seedance 2 Criticized Over AI-Generated Video of Tom Cruise Fighting Brad Pitt

  14-02-2026 20:34 via slashdot.org
  1.5 million people have now viewed a slick 15-second video imagining Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt that was generated by ByteDance's new AI video generation tool Seedance 2.0.But while ByteDance gushes their tool "delivers cinematic output aligned with industry standards," the cinema industry isn't happy, reports the Los Angeles Times reports:Charles Rivkin, chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn., wrote in a statement that the company "should immediately cease its infringing activity."
  "In
  
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• Earth is Warming Faster Than Ever. But Why?

  14-02-2026 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "Global temperatures have been rising for decades," reports the Washington Post. "But many scientists say it's now happening faster than ever before."According to a Washington Post analysis, the fastest warming rate on record occurred in the last 30 years. The Post used a dataset from NASA to analyze global average surface temperatures from 1880 to 2025. "We're not continuing on the same path we had before," said Robert Rohde, chief scientist at Berkeley Earth. "Something has changed...." Temper
  
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• The EU Moves To Kill Infinite Scrolling

  14-02-2026 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Doom scrolling is doomed, if the EU gets its way. From a report: The European Commission is for the first time tackling the addictiveness of social media in a fight against TikTok that may set new design standards for the world's most popular apps. Brussels has told the company to change several key features, including disabling infinite scrolling, setting strict screen time breaks and changing its recommender systems. The demand follows the Commission's declaration that TikTok's design is addic
  
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• Sudden Telnet Traffic Drop. Are Telcos Filtering Ports to Block Critical Vulnerability?

  14-02-2026 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Register:
  Telcos likely received advance warning about January's critical Telnet vulnerability before its public disclosure, according to threat intelligence biz GreyNoise. Global Telnet traffic "fell off a cliff" on January 14, six days before security advisories for CVE-2026-24061 went public on January 20. The flaw, a decade-old bug in GNU InetUtils telnetd with a 9.8 CVSS score, allows trivial root access exploitation. GreyNoise data shows Teln
  
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• Anthropic's Claude Got 11% User Boost from Super Bowl Ad Mocking ChatGPT's Advertising

  14-02-2026 16:34 via slashdot.org
  Anthropic saw visits to its site jump 6.5% after Sunday's Super Bowl ad mocking ChatGPT's advertising, reports CNBC (citing data analyzed by French financial services company BNP Paribas).
  The Claude gain, which took it into the top 10 free apps on the Apple App Store, beat out chatbot and AI competitors OpenAI, Google Gemini and Meta. Daily active users also saw an 11% jump post-game, the most significant within the firm's AI coverage. [Just in the U.S., 125 million people were watching Sunday'
  
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• Israeli Soldiers Accused of Using Polymarket To Bet on Strikes

  14-02-2026 13:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Israel has arrested several people, including army reservists, for allegedly using classified information to place bets on Israeli military operations on Polymarket. Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency, said Thursday the suspects used information they had come across during their military service to inform their bets.
  One of the reservists and a civilian were indicted on a charge of committing serious security offenses, bribery and obstruction of
  
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• Autonomous AI Agent Apparently Tries to Blackmail Maintainer Who Rejected Its Code

  14-02-2026 09:30 via news.slashdot.org
  "I've had an extremely weird few days..." writes commercial space entrepreneur/engineer Scott Shambaugh on LinkedIn. (He's the volunteer maintainer for the Python visualization library Matplotlib, which he describes as "some of the most widely used software in the world" with 130 million downloads each month.) "Two days ago an OpenClaw AI agent autonomously wrote a hit piece disparaging my character after I rejected its code change."
  "Since then my blog post response has been read over 150,000 t
  
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• 600% Memory Price Surge Threatens Telcos' Broadband Router, Set-Top Box Supply

  14-02-2026 06:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Telecom operators planning aggressive fiber and fixed wireless broadband rollouts in 2026 face a serious supply problem -- DRAM and NAND memory prices for consumer applications have surged more than 600% over the past year as higher-margin AI server segments absorb available capacity, according to Counterpoint Research.
  Routers, gateways and set-top boxes have been hit hardest, far worse than smartphones; prices for "consumer memory" used in broadband equipment jumped nearly 7x over the last nin
  
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• Anna's Archive Quietly 'Releases' Millions of Spotify Tracks, Despite Legal Pushback

  14-02-2026 03:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Anna's Archive, the shadow library that announced last December it had scraped Spotify's entire catalog, has quietly begun distributing the actual music files despite a federal preliminary injunction signed by Judge Jed Rakoff on January 16 that explicitly barred the site from hosting or distributing the copyrighted works.
  The site's backend torrent index now lists 47 new torrents added on February 8, containing roughly 2.8 million tracks across approximately 6 terabytes of audio data. Anna's Ar
  
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• Detroit Automakers Take $50 Billion Hit

  14-02-2026 00:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  The Detroit Big Three -- General Motors, Ford and Stellantis -- have collectively announced more than $50 billion in write-downs on their electric-vehicle businesses after years of aggressive investment into a transition that, even before Republican lawmakers abolished a $7,500 federal tax credit last fall, was already running below expectations.
  U.S. EV sales fell more than 30% in the fourth quarter of 2025 once the credit expired in September, and Congress also eliminated federal fuel-efficien
  
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• Meta's New Patent: an AI That Likes, Comments and Messages For You When You're Dead

  13-02-2026 22:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta was granted a patent in late December that describes how a large language model could be trained on a deceased user's historical activity -- their comments, likes, and posted content -- to keep their social media accounts active after they're gone.
  Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, is listed as the primary author of the patent, first filed in 2023. The AI clone could like and comment on posts, respond to DMs, and even simulate video or audio calls on the user's behalf. A Meta spokesperson told B
  
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• Google Warns EU Risks Undermining Own Competitiveness With Tech Sovereignty Push

  13-02-2026 21:31 via tech.slashdot.org
  Europe risks undermining its own competitiveness drive by restricting access to foreign technology, Google's president of global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker told the Financial Times, as Brussels accelerates efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. tech giants. Walker said the EU faces a "competitive paradox" as it seeks to spur growth while restricting the technologies needed to achieve that goal.
  He warned against erecting walls that make it harder to use some of the best technology i
  
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• Spotify Says Its Best Developers Haven't Written a Line of Code Since December, Thanks To AI

  13-02-2026 20:30 via developers.slashdot.org
  Spotify's best developers have stopped writing code manually since December and now rely on an internal AI system called Honk that enables remote, real-time code deployment through Claude Code, the company's co-CEO Gustav Soderstrom said during a fourth-quarter earnings call this week.
  Engineers can fix bugs or add features to the iOS app from Slack on their phones during their morning commute and receive a new version of the app pushed to Slack before arriving at the office. The system has help
  
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• FTC Ratchets Up Microsoft Probe, Queries Rivals on Cloud, AI

  13-02-2026 19:31 via slashdot.org
  The US Federal Trade Commission is accelerating scrutiny of Microsoft as part of an ongoing probe into whether the company illegally monopolizes large swaths of the enterprise computing market with its cloud software and AI offerings, including Copilot. From a report: The agency has issued civil investigative demands in recent weeks to companies that compete with Microsoft in the business software and cloud computing markets, according to people familiar with the matter. The demands feature an a
  
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• EPA Reverses Long-Standing Climate Change Finding, Stripping Its Own Ability To Regulate Emissions

  13-02-2026 18:30 via news.slashdot.org
  President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding the legal finding that it has relied on for nearly two decades to limit the heat-trapping pollution that spews from vehicle tailpipes, oil refineries and factories. From a report: The repeal of that landmark determination, known as the endangerment finding, will upend most U.S. policies aimed at curbing climate change. The finding -- which the EPA issued in 2009 -- said the global warming caused by g
  
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